Mann provides a great example of photography altering or even replacing real memories when she talks about a photograph of her father. While Sally Mann, as many other photographers, discovered that 'Time could be stopped, I thought, and by other hands than those of God.', she also recognized that the specific moment captured in a photograph could alter the memory we have of that moment.Īs soon as in her introduction, she indicates that looking at old photographs, she '.encountered the malignant twin to imperfect memory: the treachery of photography.', realizing that 'No snapshot can do what the attractive mnemonic impediment can: when we outsource that work to the camera, our ability to remember is diminished and what memories we have are impoverished.'. There is no objective documentary photography: it creates its own memories

Now let's look at the five takeaways for documentary photography I found in Hold Still. But while most still focus on linking this book to the controversy decades ago around the images of her children, I read it specifically from a viewpoint to find perspectives on documentary photography.įor me, Sally Mann is the ultimate (social) documentary photographer with her images of her family's life and children, her documenting the South in general, and her documenting Civil War battlefields.Īnd as each documentary photographer does, she provides us with her very personal interpretation of the scene within the rectangle of the photograph. Several reviews have been written already of this book. It provides a fascinating and intimate view of her family's history and about how that history influences her life and how she photographs.

Sally Mann's 'Hold Still' is one of my favorite photographer (auto) biographies. Five Lessons I Learned From Sally Mann’s Autobiography Hold Still

Sally mann autobiography